Preparing books, submitting VAT returns – if you’re a bookkeeper or an accountant the work never stops. In this pressurised environment it can be difficult to find time to regularly touch base with your clients.

However, if you can find different ways to engage with your clients it pays dividends as the result is a secure, reliable customer base.

Let’s looks at some simple methods of keeping your customers happy and loyal.

1. Send your clients useful information

Supplying your clients with practical advice on tax, bookkeeping or other financial matters will reinforce your credentials and reputation as an expert in your field.

Use an email bulletin or newsletter to send out useful updates on tax and other financial matters to your clients. Focus on topics that you know are going to be of interest. For example, step-by-step advice or guidance for resolving specific issues are always extremely popular.

2. Share on social media

Take some of the content you produce for your bulletins and post it on social media or in updates on your blog or website.

Use your social media profile to share industry news and topical articles on financial issues. Again, this has the effect of boosting your credentials as a professional in your industry.

You should encourage sharing and comments by giving free advice and helpful tips on subjects such as how to improve cash flow. These conversations on social media will help you to engage with your existing customers and attract potential new ones.

3. Make it personal

If you know of an issue that’s particularly relevant to a client, try and keep them informed about tax and accounting news on this subject.

For instance, you may know that some of your clients are preparing to make the change from being a sole trader to a limited company. They will appreciate any advice from HMRC you can send them on this issue. You could also follow this up with an invitation to book in some time with you to discuss future accounts and their plans for growth.

4. Provide regular financial reports

Do you send your clients monthly financial reports? If you can pull off a business report based on a set of KPIs on your dashboard it’s a small task for you to undertake – but the impact on your clients is huge.

For not very much work on your part, you can send your clients regular updates on their financial position. This is a great way to build customer loyalty as your clients feel as though they’re getting a much higher level of service than they pay for.

And as they get used to receiving these extra reports, they’ll see the benefits of working with you as opposed to your competitors.

5. Ask for feedback (using NPS)

Net promoter score (NPS) is a KPI that focuses on measuring customer loyalty. The aim of this KPI is to create a meaningful score based on customer loyalty behaviours, so you can improve customer experience.

However, you need to ask the right NPS questions to get quality feedback that helps you truly understand the opinions of your customers. The wording and phrasing of the questions you ask will have a significant impact on the responses you get. NPS questions should be short, simple and easy-to-understand.

Your objective is to get customer feedback that will allow you to improve your service. The responses can also be a great way for you to discover new ideas.

Once you have feedback, you should aim to improve your business practices in some way. This is a tangible demonstration that you care about the service you give to your clients.

6. How to put these suggestions into action

At this stage, you may be saying that’s it’s all very well to talk about improving customer engagement, but your time is limited.

However, by using a cloud-based business analytics service, you can gain access to real-time dashboards and interactive financial reports that do the work for you. Microsoft Power BItakes the client data you hold and turns it into informative financial reports and easy-to-understand visuals.

Power BI gives you a consolidated view of this information, regardless of where your data lives; allowing you to set KPIs for the metrics you need to track for your clients.

7. Release data insights held in Sage 50

What about Sage 50, I hear you ask? Often a challenge for bookkeepers and accountants, there’s finally a way to bring your Sage 50 data to life.

Using the intuitive analytical capabilities of Power BI, our tool BI GO enables you to utilise the volumes of data held in Sage 50 with real-time reports and visualisations. As a result, you can provide your clients with the critical insights they need to make informed business decisions.

Here are just a few examples of the type of information you can access with BI GO:

Real-time View of Operations

A live overview of your business operations with support for streaming data.

Previous Year Comparisons

Compare net and gross profits, revenue and purchases with previous years to gain insight into spending and earning.

Customer Information View customer activity, sales and profit and compare it to earlier years. Give your clients information on which of their customers are more likely to respond to cross-selling or up-selling.

Net New Customers Provide your clients with insights into the methods they use that are most effective for winning new business.

Automated Insights

Impress your clients by revealing patterns and trends in their data

8. Add value with BI GO

Essentially, BI GO offers a cost-effective way for you to give added value to your clients.

By visualising their data, you can show your clients actionable insights and customer trends that will help them to shape operations. At the same time, you can provide regular data-driven financial reports that will allow them to proactively manage performance and drive their business forward.

Book your free dashboard demo

If you’d like to find out more about BI GO and Microsoft Power BI, get in touch for a free demonstration.

About us

We’re Axon, and we love technology. We were founded in 2001 as a single-source IT solutions company, and in 2011 we werereborn in the cloud. In fact, we were the first company in the North West to achieve aMicrosoft Gold Cloud Competency.